University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, June 27, 1990
9
KU professor still tormented by brother's murder
By Erin Gothard Special to the Kansan
Stephen Anderson is pondering the idea of writing a book to tell his dead brother's story and the story of what a murder can do to a family.
Anderson and his younger brother Martin "Mary" Anderson were raised by church-going parents in the small town of Wellington, 30 miles south of Wichita. Their father was an amateur builder, who grew up on home economics. The boys grew up and eventually started their own families.
They were part of the all-American family. Marty Anderson became the head medical technician at Newman Memorial Hospital in Emporia. Stephen Anderson became the chairman of the Department of music and dance and professor of trombone at the University of Kansas.
But on November 4, 1983, this all-American family changed forever when Marty Anderson was shot to death by the side of a country road, outside of Junction City. His four daughters, ages three (twins), five and seven, were found huddled in his van nearby.
Marty Anderson's wife, Lorna, was later found guilty of conspiring with her lover, the Rev. Thomas Bird, to murder so she and Bird could be together.
Bird is serving a life sentence at the Kansas State Penitentiary, Lasing. Lorna Anderson, convicted in
November 1988, is serving two consecutive sentences of 5/12 to 18 years and 15 years to life in the Kansas State Correctional Institution, Lansing, Michigan, to assist with commit murder and one count of second-degree murder.
In July 1985, Bird was found guilty of murdering his wife, Sandra. In March 1990, Bird was tried for Marty Anderson's murder and acquitted.
"This is a sick, dirty, sordid situation," Stephen Anderson said. "At best what you do have? You have families that are torn apart. You have children that are killed. You every day of your life with this. Family reunions are no more."
Stephen Anderson's family had to live for years with the Douglas County Sheriff's office delivering subpoenaes to its door at all hours of the day and night. His son's grades suffered. And Anderson had to tell his grandmother that her favorite grandchild had been murdered.
"She was mortified and devastated by this," Anderson said. "She went to her grave with a broken heart." She died in January 1990.
Most exasperated to Anderson was a made-for-television movie, "Murder Ordained," which was released on May 25. It was a broadcast in May 1987, on CBS.
governor of Kansas, to voice his concerns. He said Carlin never answered him.
Stephen Anderson objected because the movie was made and broadcast during the investigation of his brother's murder.
Steve Opat, former district attorney in Geary County, where the trial was held, said Marty Anderson's murder caused Stephen Anderson and his family much anguish and grief.
He said he was repulsed and disgusted that law enforcement officers and Emporia newspaper reporters had sold their rights to the story, which Anderson could not solve. Anderson said the movie revictimized his entire family.
"When you lose a family member to such a senseless tragedy, it's devastating." Opat said. "It's overwhelming because there are no answers."
Tomas Stargardter/KANSAN
After the March 1990 trial, Stephen Anderson was too mentally and physically drained to do anything. But he managed, finally begun to get on with his life.
"I'm going to go on just fine," Anderson said. "I don't sit around and just mop about things. I don't just sit around and worry. If I do worry for a while, I'll write it down and I think about it and then I take some sort of action, if it's not something I can't do anything about, I'm able to put that kind of thing out of my mind."
Anderson said he did not feel embarrassed by what had been revealed about his former sister-in-law.
Anderson was not idle during the ordeal. He tried to focus his energy on the positive. He continued to work as chairman of the Department of Music and Dance at KU. He wrote, "We have formed all over the world, and he was the president of the International Trombone Association."
He wrote to John Carlin, then the
"Most of us have skeletons of one sort or another in our closet." Anderson said. "Most of us never have those exposed to the public. I can't do anything about what anyone else wants me to be going to think what they want."
Anderson remains disappointed that the media never cared about exploring Marty Anderson as the victim. He said he thought the media did not want to deal with victims unless they were famous.
"There's a loser syndrome," Anderson said. "My brother is a loser because he was murdered. Reporters didn't want to hear about him. We don't want to be reminded that we are vulnerable, that we can lose. We want those feelings that life is going to be OK."
When Anderson remembers his younger brother, his eyes light up. He remembers Marty Anderson as a person intensely interested in doing a good job in everything. Anderson said his brother was very funny and fond of playing practical jokes. He also loved the man he and he worked and played hard. Most importantly, Marty Anderson loved his children.
Stephen Anderson, chairman of the department of music and dance-
"When he played with the children it was a rolling, tumbling sort of an affair. And they loved it," Anderson said.
Janet Compton, Olathe, said she and her husband had been good friends with Marty and Lorna Anderson. The Andersons named their twin daughters after Compton's two daughters, Jennifer and Janelle.
She remembers Marty Anderson
as a very calm, collected and jovial man. He was always very professional and polite.
"Marty was highly respected in the community," Compton said.
Now that the trials are over, Stephen Anderson said he still thought his work was not done.
He wants to tell his brother's story from beginning to end. He wants to tell just the facts, as simply as possible, through the eyes of a living victim. He wants to let other victims
know what kinds of feelings they can expect to have and that it is all right to have those feelings.
Anderson found it helpful to read books about living victims of tragedy. Now he wants to do something with this human tragedy that will help someone else, and he wants to do it in his brother's name.
"It would be for him, for his memory, for the good things he did in his life and for my family," Anderson said.
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